In case you don’t know what fracking is, it’s the injecting of water, sand and toxic chemicals (chemicals which are not required to be revealed to the public-aka the Halliburton loophole). They drill a vertical hole down to shale formations, usually past the water table, then drill horizontally a few miles. This process extracts the natural gas from the shale.

We are very lucky in Connecticut that Governor Dan Malloy and the Connecticut General assembly recently passed a three year moratorium on storing, treating or disposing of fracking waste. This is a major win for the public in Connecticut! We do not have a lot of shale to do fracking, however other nearby states have asked our help in accepting waste from fracking.

“People who live close to natural gas fracking wells were more likely to have skin and respiratory symptoms than those living farther away, according to a new Yale study…. people who lived less than 1 kilometer (0.6 mile) away from a well were more than four times as likely to have symptoms than the control group, composed of those who live more than 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) away.”

The process of fracking has been a new environmental obsolescence to consider when buying real estate. As Broker I’d venture as far as not recommending any client to purchase a home near a fracking site, nor a fracking waste disposal site.

Is there fracking in your state? Its certainly a major new issue for Realtors to understand and advise their clients in a purchase.

Have you had to sell a home that had health issues for homeowners being near fracking? What experiences have you had with homes near fracking sites?